Maintenance and Safety of Sponge City Infrastructure

authored by

Stephan Köster

Abstract

Sponge City development is embedded in a realignment of urban

development with a strict focus on water. In recent years, especially

China has undertaken many concrete efforts and high investments in order

to promote the Sponge City approach and to galvanize the decision

makers to action. China aims at shaping water sponging cities to better

cope with climate change and to especially mitigate negative impacts of

extreme rainfalls on urban spaces. However, the advantages of green and

spongy cities only will develop their full potential if operation and

maintenance (O&M) are performed adequately and accurately.

Especially, maintenance must be seen as a core element of asset

management. In the Sponge City case, adapted preventive maintenance

strategies should be pursued comprehensively considering the local

(climatic) circumstances so that unnecessary performance losses and

further negative side effects do not occur in the Sponge City

infrastructure. Sufficient financial resources must be available for

this task. In order to minimize future efforts and costs, the findings

from previous maintenance activities will be crucial for design

modifications or adjustments. Maintenance in Sponge City environments

stimulates innovation, assures feedback, shows weak points, enhances

reliability, and provides reason to improve the entire urban water

system (including the underground infrastructure). If the implementation

is successful, the Sponge City might be the starting point for further

developments that fuel urban transformation.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management

Type

Contribution to book/anthology

Pages

13-55

Publication date

22.01.2019

Publication status

Published

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 - Climate Action

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01488-9_2 (Access: Closed)